Dr. Chad Baker (’67)

Chad Baker grew up in Birmingham, AL and had intended to attend Auburn University to study engineering, but he came to Memphis with a high-school group for a campus visit to Christian Brothers College. “It just seemed to be a natural fit,” he recalls now. He says he was drawn to CBC by the friendliness of the campus. “We were taking a tour of the campus, and all the students living in Maurelian Hall just filed out on that Saturday morning onto the balconies and shouted at us, ‘Don’t sign anything!’ I knew I’d found a home.”

Chad also credits the small class sizes and the Christian Brothers for his success as a student. “The Brothers were instrumental, always willing to take the time to help me out.” He graduated in 1967 with a BS Electrical Engineering and went immediately to graduate school at Duke University, where he earned a MS in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. After that he went to Texas A&M for a year of post-doctoral studies and returned to CBC in 1972 to begin his teaching career.

He says that the most important lesson he learned at CBU is to “Ask questions if you don’t understand something and, most important, ‘Be prepared.’”

Chad recalls that when he was a student, many of his classmates would come to him for help with projects and homework. He ended up teaching them as he learned himself, and he realized that teaching was something he enjoyed. He has taught at CBU for the past half-century, retiring from his full-time faculty position in 2010 and being named Professor Emeritus. He still teaches a class or two in electric circuits or robotics each semester. Chad also “moonlighted” as a Technical Analyst at FedEx for 16 years, from 1992 to 2008, and has served as a Visiting Professor at Rhodes College.

Chad is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has authored many research publications during his career. He is also a member of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society. He has been named a Schmitt Scholar by the National Electronics Conference and is a recipient of the Memphis Area Joint Engineers Council Featured Engineer Award. He has been active at CBU in the Healthcare Packaging Consortium and the Go Baby Go Project.

Along with teaching several generations of electrical and computer engineers at CBU and preparing them for professional careers, Chad has also been a very generous donor to the University over the years and strongly believes in monetarily supporting its mission. “This is where our new leaders are coming from,” he says.

I believe that part of the job that we all have as human beings is to prepare the future for the next generation. I believe that my teaching has done that.